Hey there! Welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, we’ll be taking a look at the hope and the promise of Christmas, from Luke chapter two. This is a time of year when hope is a watchword, and traditionally has been a season when people are much more open to receive kindness and blessings and when you say Merry Christmas and God bless you, maybe they don’t do that little uncomfortable wince that happens at times. This year, let’s take a few minutes and consider the hope we have because of Christmas, and because of all the promises God made and then fulfilled when Jesus came to earth as a newborn baby. You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, part of the Spark Network, now playing in the Edifi app. That’s Edifi, spelled E D I F I, and you can find it in your device’s app store. The hope and the promise of Christmas is our focus today, and this is episode number 201. As I did some research for this episode, I read that there were at least eight specific prophecies that were fulfilled when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Now of course, Jesus fulfilled hundreds of prophecies when He lived on this earth, and died and rose again. And the remainder will absolutely be fulfilled at His second coming. But regarding His birth in Bethlehem, we find the fulfillment of prophecies from Genesis 22:18, Numbers 24:17, Isaiah 7:14 (that one is a common Christmas card verse, for good reason), Isaiah 9:6-7, Daniel 9:25-26, Micah 5:2 (one of my favorite verses for this time of year), Jeremiah 31:15, Hosea 11:1 which does tie in with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. The Bible truly is an amazing book, God’s Word is profound. And at Christmastime, I hope it has a profound impact and blessing on your life. I say this a lot, but I think it needs to be said often - not only are God’s promises true…they are true for you. He loves you enough to make promises to you and then to keep those promises. And that’s where hope comes in for us - we have such great hope because we’ve seen Him keep His promises, and in the midst of tough times, we hold on to our hope that He will continue to keep His promises. This is not hope misplaced; it’s the opposite - perfectly placed hope. Hope in the Lord ends up being the kind of faith that yields results. It’s unseen at first, those results, but ends up being seen when our faith becomes sight. If you need some hope right now, well, this is for you. From the Amplified, Luke chapter two verse 1 says: Now in those days a decree went out from (the emperor) Caesar Augustus, that all the inhabited world (the Roman Empire) should be registered (in a census). So this was more than just an emperor deciding he needed to take a census and get an accounting of all the citizens of his empire. This was done at the Lord’s behest, because of His will. One of the things that is easy to overlook in the Christmas story, to take for granted, because we’ve heard this passage so many times, year after year, it’s easy to overlook the significance of the way God’s hand, albeit invisible, was at work to move the heart of Caesar to order this census that required everyone to return to their own city, hometown, the town for their family’s official registration. And if we just read verse one, that single sentence, and move right on into the rest of the chapter, we can miss the reality that’s here for us, for our lives, right now. God moves in the lives and in the hearts of men, women, and children. He moves little people, and that’s like little in quotes because all mankind is so precious to Him, nobody is small or miniscule to Him. Our God is not in the business of marginalizing people. He created each one, knitting each in their mother’s womb, has engraved us on the palms of His hands, and no one is without value to Him. So that’s not what I mean when I say little persons. What I mean is, societally, the shepherds were not big wigs, power players, in that culture. And yet, they were given the message, the announcement, of the birth of the Messiah, the very Son of God. Amazing! The emperor, Caesar Augustus, was moved to issue the decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world, all his empire, and so mankind was on the move, headed to their hometowns to be registered as part of this mandatory census. Don’t miss this. There is great importance and value to this moment in time - and it’s valuable and important for your life. The God of hope is the God who wants you to believe that He can move mountains and the hearts of kings, rulers, those in authority, in order to bring about what He has in store for your life. He is not arrogant and narcissistic, that He would move those mountains and turn those hearts in ostentatious ways. He does not need to be loud about it, because He has no insecurities, needs no validation - so He can do it without there being a lot of fanfare about the WHY behind what He is doing. And yet, He may still ...
